HIST211: Introduction to United States History - Colonial Period to Reconstruction

Unit 5: North and SouthThe new democratic spirit of the early 19th century was also
threatened by growing sectional differences and ideologies:
*Northerners believed that their society was characterized by
antislavery beliefs, a system of wage labor, and efficient urban
factories, while Southerners, by contrast, thought that their society
was premised on the “positive good” of slavery, a system of enslaved
labor, and a profitable plantation network.

In this unit, you will explore how the North and the South came to view
their societies during the antebellum years. You will examine the social
conditions, economic policies, and racial attitudes of each region in
order to understand how and why these two sections of the United States
could coexist within the same federal union despite such seemingly
drastic differences.*

Unit 5 Time Advisory
Completing this unit should take approximately 8.25 hours.

☐ Subunit 5.1: 3.5 hours

☐ Subunit 5.2: 4.75 hours

Unit5 Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- define and explain the characteristics of Northern society,
including labor systems;
- define and explain the characteristics of Southern society,
including labor systems;
- explain the conditions and characteristics of slavery in America;
- explain the ideological arguments for and against slavery; and
- analyze and interpret primary source documents from the era, using
historical research methods.

Also available in:
[HTML, Flash, MP3, or
QuickTime](http://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-119/lecture-4)
Instructions: Watch this lecture to get a sense of how the North’s
worldview differed from that of the South. Using abolitionist and
anti-slavery ideas, Blight demonstrates the creation of a distinctly
Northern antebellum ideology.
Watching this video and pausing to take notes should take
approximately 1 hour.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Click on the link above, click the “Start Lesson”
button, and watch the presentation for the fourth topic,
“Abolitionism.” Click on the “Text” tab and read all of the pages.
Then, click on the links under “Explore” and read the accompanying
text.
This resource gives a good overview of Northern anti-slavery
thought and abolitionism. It is important to note, however, that
abolitionists – those who called for immediate emancipation –
comprised a tiny minority in the Northern states. Instead, most
Northerners were anti-black, anti-slavery, and pro-colonization.
Watching this presentation and reading the accompanying text should
take approximately 30 minutes.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Reading: United States Library of Congress’ African-American
Mosaic: “Colonization”
Link: United States Library of Congress’ African-American Mosaic:
“Colonization” (HTML)

Instructions: Read this webpage for an overview of colonization,
which involved the settlement of freed slaves from the United States
in the new nation of Liberia in West Africa. Prior to the emergence
of the abolitionist movement in the 1830s, colonization was the
focus of anti-slavery reformers, including some prominent slave
owners, such as President James Monroe.

Reading this webpage and taking notes should take approximately 30
minutes.

Instructions: Read this webpage. This 1829 call for a slave revolt
by David Walker, a free black living in Boston, rejected the moral
suasion and gradualism of the anti-slavery movement of the time in
favor of more radical action on the part of slaves. As you read,
note Walker’s approach to the issue of slavery and how to abolish
it. Why might Walker have been considered a radical at the time?

Reading this text and answering the question above should take
approximately 30 minutes.

Instructions: Read this webpage. The city of Lowell, Massachusetts,
was the birthplace of a new kind of industrial factory system, in
which the spinning and weaving of cloth were completed under the
same roof. The Lowell System, as this innovation was called,
attracted thousands of young women from poor farming families to
work in factories. Workers soon discovered, however, the dangerous,
oppressive, and exploitative nature of the system and a rebellion
occurred in 1834, as the Lowell Mill Girls agitated for better
treatment. The strike was unsuccessful. Inthis eyewitness report
from 1846, note the possible reasons why the mill workers were
dissatisfied.
Reading this webpage and taking notes should take approximately 30
minutes.
Terms of Use: This resource is in the public domain.

Instructions: Read this webpage to learn about the market
revolution in the early to mid-19<sup>th</sup> century. This era
marked a dramatic change in the manual labor system of the United
States. As you read these selections, compare some of the positive
and negative impacts of consumerism and urbanization on American
life.
Reading this webpage and taking notes should take approximately 30
minutes.
Terms of Use: This resource is licensed under a [Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/deed.en_US).

5.2 Southern Society
- Lecture: YouTube: Open Yale Courses: David Blight’s HIST119: The
Civil War and Reconstruction Era: “Lecture 3: A Southern World
View: The Old South and Pro-slavery Ideology”
Link: YouTube: Open Yale Courses: David Blight’s HIST119: The
Civil War and Reconstruction Era: “Lecture 3: A Southern World
View: The Old South and Pro-slavery
Ideology” (YouTube)

Also available in:[
HTML, Flash, MP3, or
QuickTime](http://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-119/lecture-3)
Instructions: Watch this lecture to learn what pro-slavery ideology
was and how it defined the intellectual and cultural contours of the
“Old South.” Through an examination of pro-slavery ideology,
Professor Blight shows that antebellum Southerners believed slavery
was the bedrock of their civilization.
Watching this video and pausing to take notes should take
approximately 1 hour.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Read this webpage, which examines the economy of the
antebellum South and its defense of the institution of slavery as
well as the oppression and indignities experienced by African
American slaves.
Reading this webpage and taking notes should take approximately 30
minutes.
Terms of Use: This resource is licensed under a [Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/deed.en_US).

5.2.2 Slave Labor and the Domestic Slave Trade
- Reading: University of Michigan, MLibrary Digital Collections’
The Making of America: William Goodell’s “The American Slave Code
in Theory and Practice”
Link: University of Michigan, MLibrary Digital Collections’ The
Making of America: William Goodell’s “The American Slave Code in
Theory and
Practice” (HTML)

Instructions: Read Chapter 2, on pages 44–62, in Goodell’s 1853
pamphlet. William Goodell was an abolitionist and one of the
founders of the New York Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. This chapter
discusses the domestic slave trade in the antebellum period.
Reading this chapter and taking notes should take approximately 1
hour.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Read this brief introduction to slave labor
conditions, and then click on the link “Download full briefing for
this subject” and read the Word document. Next, click the links on
the left sidebar and explore the additional websites.

These resources examine the experiences of slaves on plantations in
North America and the way in which slaves resisted and rebelled
against their conditions.

Please note that Anti-Slavery International’s website is a work in
progress, so some of these websites may be dead or may have moved.

Studying this resource and taking notes should takeapproximately 30
minutes.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Reading: United States Library of Congress’ American Memory:
“Interview with W.L. Bost, Ex-Slave”
Link: United States Library of Congress’ American Memory:
“Interview with W.L. Bost,
Ex-Slave” (HTML)

Instructions: Read the interview with W.L. Bost on pages 138–147.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Federal Writers’
Project conducted oral histories of former slaves who were still
alive to preserve their memories of slave life. This testimony from
W.L. Bost recounts the sale and enslavement of blacks in North
Carolina in the 19th century. How does this oral history
provide insight into the daily life of slaves?

Reading this interview and answering the question above should take
approximately 45 minutes.

Also available in:
[HTML, Flash, MP3, or
QuickTime](http://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-119/lecture-2)
Instructions: Watch this lecture to get a sense of the contours of
antebellum Southern culture. Professor Blight examines the roots of
Southern distinctiveness in the antebellum era and suggests that a
commitment to honor, anti-modernity, and profitable slave labor
helped shaped the “peculiar” nature of the region.
Watching this video and pausing to take notes should take
approximately 1 hour.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.